Osmosis is the movement of a solvent from a dilute solution to a concentrated solution through a semipermeable membrane. Reverse osmosis is a widely used separation technique with a variety of applications. Desalination of seawater and separation of organic and toxic substances from industrial wastewater are two important applications of this technology.

The steel industry uses large amounts of water. However, very little is consumed, as most of the water is reused or returned to the source. Water is used not only in cooling operations, but also in other processes such as scale removal and dust cleaning.

One of the methods of producing fresh water for industrial use is the use of multi-stage thermal desalination plants to desalinate seawater. Due to the high content of soluble and insoluble compounds in seawater and the high temperature shock in desalination packages, sedimentation in these packages is unavoidable. For this reason, periodic sediment removal from desalination plants should be performed.